Relationship anarchy

Relationship anarchy (sometimes abbreviated RA) is the belief that relationships should not be bound by rules aside from what the people involved mutually agree upon. If a relationship anarchist has multiple intimate partners, it might be considered as a form of polyamory, but distinguishes itself by postulating that there need not be a formal distinction between sexual, romantic, or platonic relationships.

Relationship anarchists look at each relationship (romantic, platonic or otherwise) individually, as opposed to categorizing them according to societal norms such as 'just friends', 'in a relationship', or 'in an open relationship'.

The term relationship anarchy was coined by Andie Nordgren,[1] and is the topic of Swedish bachelor theses by Jacob Strandell[2] and Ida Midnattssol.[3] It was discussed in workshops at OpenCon 2010,[4] and by Senior Open University lecturer Dr Meg-John Barker in a presentation in 2013.[5]

The relationship anarchy movement has its roots in the free love movement of the 20th century,[6] which in some forms rejected the idea of monogamous marriage, seeing it as a form of social and financial bondage.